on trains in and out of London<\/p>\n\n
Ken MacLeod, the Night Sessions<\/em><\/a>: very good and tightly imagined account of what a war on religion would actually mean; and what a secular Scotland would be like. Written with great sympathy for the villains; also I am extremely glad of the idea that the last best Calvinists in the world turn out to be robots. The best of his I have read to date.<\/p>\n\n Charlie Stross, Merchant Princes,<\/em> books one two and three: ought to be really enjoyable fluff, and almost is. But in the end the mashup of chicklit , thriller and Marxism doesn’t work. The heroine is not exactly a Mary Sue, but she is too self-consciously meant as a a figure for readers to identify with. Either that, or the feisty, sexy, divorcee is this century’s answer to the carved white Victorian angel, and every bit as life-like. <\/p>\n\n Thomas Jackson , Darwin’s Error<\/em>:<\/a> very interesting book by an ex-Catholic with the subtitle “the poet who died”. Not about the science at all, but about the philosophy and the prose. I didn’t have room to squeeze it into my “big” New Statesman review,1<\/a><\/sup> but should blog about it next week. <\/p>\n\n Nick Spencer, Darwin’s God<\/em><\/a>, which, unlike Jackson’s, is actually about religion. A scrupulous account of the development of Darwin’s irreligious opinions. <\/p>\n\n And, since it is Easter Day, I throw in for free the news that a church in Västerås has, after two years’ work, and the collection of 30,000 white bricks, unveiled their life-size Lego Jesus.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n 1<\/sup> I was sent a total of sixteen books, to be reviewed in 1400 words<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" on trains in and out of London Ken MacLeod, the Night Sessions: very good and tightly imagined account of what a war on religion would actually mean; and what a secular Scotland would be like. Written with great sympathy for … Continue reading